Schools of People's Theater

The School of People’s Theater (SPT) is the training arm of PETA responsible for initiating and coordinating the educational component of the company. Through the SPT, PETA expresses its continued commitment to the mission of making theater accessible for everyone and connected to the lives of people. It has of a pool of expert educators from various backgrounds who bring with them a wealth of experience as arts practitioners and artist-teachers. They inspire and unleash creativity in teaching theater and applied theater courses. The SPT, through its various networks, has successfully conducted year-round theater workshops at the PETA Theater Center and community workshops both locally and internationally. The SPT also supports and enhances many cultural, educational and development initiatives of various sectors and communities in the archipelago.

The SPT is led by renowned visual artist Brenda Villanueva Fajardo (Curriculum Director) and Wilson Billones (Program Manager), who are both experts in community theater organizing; organizational program development; training curriculum design and management, theater arts workshop facilitation for children, young people and adults and organizational development program facilitation.

Year Round Workshops – SPT offers an intensive Theater for Artistic Development (TAD) curriculum for children, young people and adults. The TAD courses include Theater Arts 1, Basic Acting, Playwrighting, Creative Musical Theater, Creative Dance Theater and Visual Arts. These courses are designed not only for those pursuing arts as a career but for ordinary people who wish to unleash their creative potential. Aside from its TAD courses, the SPT also connects with many education stakeholders to offer the use of PETA’s creative pedagogy in teaching, through its Theater in Education course.

Extension Courses – Aside from its in-house workshops, PETA also entertains requests for special theater classes and short-term courses aimed at exploring the use of the arts in teaching, advocacy, training and organizing, as well as developing cultural work.

Community Theater – SPT offers its services to sectoral groups, NGOs, and community-based organizations to help in building the creative capacities of people as an empowerment and development tool geared toward social advocacy. It explores and pursues the development of cultural action as a strategy for awareness raising, issue advocacy, participatory governance and community rehabilitation.